New case idea.. looking for input..
 

last year i built my own air cooled plexi case and loved every minute of it.. you can see some pics here if you want

this christmas break i'd like to build a new box with watercooling in mind.. the design i'm going for will be much less dramatic but hopefully extremely functional.. here's my initial idea:
http://acm.cs.uic.edu/~tamale/HEBTamale/caseidea.GIF
Note that the case is designed to be a desktop-style.. with it laying flat and the opticle drives being at the front
i also realize the components (and box itself) aren't to scale, but i think you can get the general idea.

i'd like to get an sli-capable amd64 motherboard, but will most likely only be cooling one video card until i can afford a second one later next year sometime.

now i was looking at the 1250 pump that so many people seem to like but i'm just really not sure which would go best with one of those 3x120mm radiators from blackice or thermalchill.. i realize heatercores are probably better but i already have three very nice 120mm fans (the chrome evercool ones) and would rather build my new case around one of these long radiators, with the idea being to create a true windtunnel air effect with the concept that the air will only have one main path to travel.. it's always seemed to me that a big part of the problem with air cooling in many systems is that it doesn't travel in a very straight line.. you look at any well-cooled professional system the devices are designed to be in a single-file line with the air going in the same direction...

you can see i'm intending for the coolest air to go over the radiator first on the right side, then the drives, then finally exhaust at the left side (and perhaps back where the pump is located as well)

i'm basically just fishing for thoughts on this design and general insight as to which pump/tubing/waterblocks might go best with this idea, if i'm an idiot for even thinking about not using heatercores, and if a parallel/multi-pump setup might be better than a conventional series one for this design...

i'm leaning towards an RBX, 1250, and 1/2" tubing, but again, this is my first watercooling venture and i wanna get it as good as possible :)

How would you access the optical drives? From the side?

That's actually the front.. the idea is that the ports and cables that normally come out the 'back' are actually accessible on the side

so air comes in the right side, goes from right to left, and the majority of it goes out the left side where all the ports/cables are

the hard drives and pump/reservoir are in the back

edit: i edited the main post to make it more easily understood :)

having the cak facing to the side will clutter your desk and probably not look too pretty.

I'm assuming hte optical drives are facing toward me.

don't worry about that.. i already have that covered :)

and yes, the drives face you

anyone have any comments at all on this design?

at least a tubing size reccomendation or something :cool:

welp.. it's all together.. here's some pics from start to finish:

http://acm.cs.uic.edu/~tamale/pics/newcase/


and here's some pics from the lan i'm currently at :)

http://www.ducky-eh.com/wwl3/
http://www.ducky-eh.com/wwl3/images/DSCN0194.JPG
http://www.ducky-eh.com/wwl3/images/DSCN0197.JPG

cpu is currently a nice chilly 19 degrees celcius :)
it's a 2.6 oc'd to 3.0

Doesn't look like you shrouded those fans.

Of course, I can't tell for sure from here. Just a glance.

Overall it looks nice. Seems a little bulky but its basically the size of a normal mid tower right? Maybe a tad longer.

Very clean lines. Nicely done.

Nice work. I also plan on builing my next case from scratch so I can build it around my setup rather than the other way round.

BTW how is that pump working out for you?

great.. no complaints at all.. so small.. so quiet.. and i'm gettin insanely good temps imo

granted i'm not nearly as hard core about watercooling as some people here, but i would definately consider my initial venture into this stuff a huge success

the block is the swiftech 6002p, the tubing is 1/2" uv-blue from dangerden, the radiator is the thermochill he120.3 and the fans are 120mm evercools.. they're shrouded, but it's from the way they're mounted.. it's not a stock bought shroud

new vid card cooler installed and lights and cables have been placed much better..
http://acm.cs.uic.edu/~tamale/pics/newcase/